Opus 2014-283: Don’t Ask Me, I Just Work Here

Our society is running in Fieldhand Mode.

I came across this term by putting together the times I work with control freaks and a video I watched that involved slaves hoeing cotton.  There are a lot of parallels.

It doesn’t take long for a slave condemned to a life of mindless labor to realize that he will not be rewarded for hard work and perseverance.  In fact, it is just the opposite.  The slave who worked hard, fast and well was just given more work by the overseer.  Once the achiever had demonstrated what was possible, the other slaves were then driven to keep up with the new pace.  This created a backlash from the other slaves.  You see a similar occurrence with new workers in a union shop.  It takes a bit of “counseling” to get their production down to the level of the veterans.

After a long period of this type of stupefying tedium, the mind settles into a vacuum.  The hands and body go through the motion but the brain exists in another world of day-dream and fantasy.  Originality and creativity go out the window with hope.  The cultural damage is that hard work is associated with slavery and the lower classes and those who can afford it try to find a way to avoid sweat, unless it is in sports or recreation.

Overseers run our society.  We have an oppressive, over-regulated government that seeks to suck as much life blood out of every subject as possible.  Taxes are raised to the point where people refuse to invest.  Regulation strangles attempts to be innovate and creative.  The boss man sits under his office tree with his regulation whip in his hand and dares you to try to rise above mediocre.  I have heard it said that even the most law abiding, conscientious citizen breaks enough laws every day to be put in jail.  Even the IRS doesn’t know what the tax code says.  All it takes is getting an appointed government administrator mad at you and you are toast.

Thus we keep our heads down and do as little work as possible.  We find ways to do things under that table.  We don’t share our methods.  A day without tripping a rule is a day to celebrate.

I am most familiar with education.  The Overseers in their tofu towers (ivory comes from endangered species) has the whip that can get us fired or worse.  They put out bulletins and standards.  When I was directed to mine on the internet I had to go through three or four levels of links and when I got there found mine started about 450 pages into the document.  And it was small print.  Most of it is gibberish or jargon.  We are too busy to read it, let alone put it into practice.  We worry about being confronted but the Aristocrats of Administration are afraid to push too hard.  There might be rebellion in the ranks.

Or a child commenting on the naked king.

Will the Elites regulate the internet?  Will they get us out of our cars?  Will they destroy marriage?  They are well on their way.  Most of us are field hands.

When the rebellion comes I pray that it will have limited violence.

homo unius libri